The myth of culture change
A lot of people talk about culture change in organisations. “We want our place to have an innovation culture!”. “Our leaders keep telling us about culture change initiatives”. “The problem with that company is its culture”. “How do we copy Google’s culture?”. You hear these phrases all the time. People write books, go to conferences, […]
Continue readingThe most common reason Agile fails
There are plenty of examples of Agile going wrong. Big government projects trying Agile and crashing and burning. Or “Zombie scrum”. Or “Cargo Cult Agile”. These are all sad stories and all too common. So what goes wrong? There are lots of reasons. Some of them are cultural, some of them are technical, some of […]
Continue readingAgile product funding
Agile Product Funding and Teams I’ve talked before about the problems with project teams and project funding. To summarise: projects are generally short-lived affairs, and can often leave a mass of technical debt and half-finished work behind them project teams are generally short-lived affairs, and project managers can willfully set them on death marches, since […]
Continue readingCargo Cult Agile
You sometimes hear about “Cargo Cult Agile”, and you might be wondering what that means. It’s a cute term with an interesting and funny history. But the thing itself is not funny at all. This article will explain what it is, where it comes from, and what to do about it. What does “cargo cult” mean? […]
Continue readingScrum bad smells
There are a number of “bad smells” that you might encounter while doing Scrum. These are generally signs that might seem innocent, but suggest something is badly wrong. You need to watch out for these signs. Standups going over the timebox The bad smell This is a classic one to watch out for. The Daily […]
Continue readingObligation to dissent and the circle of safety
I read an article recently about “obligation to dissent“. It’s an interesting phrase with some important concepts behind it. Some of these concepts tie closely into the principles of Agile. Some organisations foster a culture where dissent is welcome, others don’t. This is an important clue to the overall health of that organisation and its […]
Continue readingGo see. Stop and fix it.
I’ve read a fair bit about Lean Manufacturing and Lean Software Development. Lean Manufacturing is old and Japanese and not really related to Agile at all. Lean Software Development is an attempt to apply some of those ideas to software development. It shares a lot in common with the values and principles of the Agile […]
Continue readingMisconceptions about the Product Backlog
There are a lot of misconceptions about the Product Backlog. In fact, I would say it is probably the least understood artefact of Scrum. Getting it wrong can cause big problems, not just for your product and its roadmap, but for your developers too. Being a product owner is a hard job, and easy to get […]
Continue readingWays that cloud can support agile and lean startup
One of the biggest changes in information technology over the last ten years has been cloud computing. This change is huge and it is here to stay. While cloud is transforming businesses and governments around the world, it provides special advantages for certain types of organisations and work. This article will explain the ways in which […]
Continue readingAgile reading list: essential books
This is my list of essential Agile books, sorted into categories. I’ve read and would recommend all of these. I’ve separated them into General, Process, People, and Technology. General Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle This is the book that started it all. Written by the two guys who started it […]
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